Slashdot Mirror
Export-level Encryption Proves Insufficient
rossjudson writes: "The Independent is running an article about the shoe bomber terrorist. The interesting bit for Slashdot readers is at the bottom -- apparently the 40-bit encryption in the export version of Windows 2000 was cracked by a set of computers using a brute force method. So let's confront the question: Should the US prohibit the export of high-encryption software? Here is a case where the default values (40 bit) clearly helped recover valuable information from a system." There's another article in New Scientist focusing on the encryption issue.
Don't bring up gun control laws: There is NO comparison. Guns can be physically controlled, and guns as physical entities generally conform to border laws (ergo: Don't bring your guns with you on trips to Canada). The next time a variety store clerk is shot with a gun that a 17 year old got robbing a home think long and hard about the proliferation of weapons and what gun control laws really do.
The legal use? In Canada it is illegal to use a gun (or threaten use of a gun) unless you're law enforcement or are in perilous immediate obvious danger (i.e. some guy stealing your TV set does not qualify. Indeed some guy coming at you with a bat doesn't qualify if you could hop out a window and get away): It is ILLEGAL to pull your gun out against a burglar, so that isn't a very good example of a "legal" use. The only legal uses of guns in Canada is hunting, and at the shooting range, or perhaps to rub gently while dreaming of the ultimate power that you hold against all those meanies out there.
The _overwhelming_ majority of guns on the streets illegally in Canada got there by being stolen from "lawful" owners in home/gun shop burglaries, or by being pilfered over from the US (which of course is a gun haven: Again the US has such an epidemic because of lax gun control laws). I'm not even commenting on whether or not gun control is right or wrong, or whether violence would decrease if guns were banned world wide (i.e. People still can kill each other with bats and knives), but just that it is idiotic to compare gun control with encryption control, and it is ridiculous to claim that "legal" gun ownership has no effect on "illegal" gun ownership, as the former DIRECTLY leads to the latter (i.e. how many guns are on the streets in countries where guns are heavily prohibited?).
So why is there a higher rate of buglary in the USA than the UK, where guns are almost non-existant in comparison? I would argue that the possibility of a gun being in the house is not a deterent at all.
When it comes to Israel and the USA, I would - and I really mean this - shoot Sharon if I had the opportunity. Again, open up your eyes
it's in my head
You let a guy who looks like George Bush (V2.0) into the white house, and you get the laws you deserve.
How can the first post be redundant?
How can the first post be redundant?
How can the first post be redundant?
Losing charma now...I can feel it...
My last name is scottish, so obviously i can't be an american. Um, wake up dude. You might be right, b/c you can't assume by someones last name where they live.
I always thought it was:
When encryption is outlawed, only IAna0dnmlaijJ(* a88x)(!U(!9ojxoa92nMMn8nO*N*NSsn981s